Strategies, tips, how to's and best practices for online video publishers

If you’re a small business owner or want to communicate with an online audience, you should consider video marketing. I proudly present my Top 3 Tips for Producing Your First Online Marketing Video

1. My first tip is to pay attention to sound.

If you’re using a flip cam or a similar video camera, make sure you’re in a quiet location so the background noise doesn’t bother the viewer. Unless you are shooting a music video, it should be quiet around you. Before you start filming, make sure that you are not going to be interrupted by cell phones, barking dogs, or people chatting in the background. Also make sure your camera is close enough to the subject that you will be able to hear them clearly.

If you’re using a camera that will allow an external microphone, look into these sound enhancing options. Shotgun mic, Lapel mic, handheld mic or a wireless external mic.

2. Be short and to the point.

Do you know what WIFT means? It means your viewers want to know what’s in it for them so, get to the point right away and then share your information later. Present your message with your audience in mind. Time is valuable and let’s face it, if they get bored they will click you off and be on to the next video with-in the first 20 seconds. They don’t want to waste time watching a hard sales pitch, a boring commercial or a misleading message.

3. Call to Action.

Make sure you include your contact information and give them a good reason to visit your store, call you, like you on your Facebook business page, sign up for your FABULOUS newsletter or visit your informative website. Think of other ways they can connect with you too like: following you on Twitter, reading your blog or asking a question in an email. Encourage your viewers to follow-up with you in a quick and easy way.

Video can be a powerful tool in communicating with your customers and potential customers too. Just this week I received a glowing testimonial from a client who said he’s thrilled about the new clients he’s getting from the video’s we produced for his website. He’s had such an increase in business he’s asked us to record a video every month for him. The first video we shot was an introduction on his front page so people could get to know him. Know, Like and Trust is what your customers want and video is the easiest way to accomplish this.

If you have any questions or would like to see some of the videos I have produced, please visit my website and if you like what you see, contact me so we can talk about your online success.

Today, online video has become as prevalent as text on the web was more than a decade ago and is now being used as an effective marketing tool for businesses small and large alike. In a recent article in the New York Times, Kermit Pattison highlighted the growing trend of businesses using video as a low-cost way to reach to sell their products, connect with customers for deeper conversations and communicate their brand. The barriers to creating and distributing professional-quality video have been eroded with the development of affordable content creation tools and the solutions available from online video platforms.

In the example presented by the New York Times, Pattison focused on how a small California manufacturing company, Ceilume, decided to use online video as a way to tell customers how its products were different from its competitors. Pattison spoke with Ed Davis, President of Ceilume, who discussed how video marketing helped tell his company’s story better than any other marketing approach it had tried before.

According to Pattison:

“Over the last several years, Ceilume has produced dozens of YouTube videos for product demonstrations, advertisements and how-to instruction. These videos are embedded in the company Web site or show up in results when customers search for keywords. As a result, Ceilume has reached tens of thousands of customers at a very low cost.”

Here’s one of Ceilume’s video from its YouTube Channel, Can I Afford a Coffered Ceiling? that offers information to customers rather than a blatant sales pitch:

SHOW YOUR PRODUCTS – Online video may be the best way to demonstrate a product. Customers can see the actual product and make purchasing decisions based on what they see rather than having to request a sample.

CREATE A DESTINATION – Having an online video spokesperson in your video adds that human touch that no other marketing tool can duplicate, short of being there in person, and when you add that element to your company website you create a reason for customers to keep coming back. Your website can become your company channel full of useful information that connects with your customers and you’ll be seen not as pitching products, but as customer-friendly experts.

USE ANALYTICS AND TOOLS – All video platforms, including: YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, Blip.tv, and professional platforms like Brightcove, Ooyala or Kaltura, offer tools that allow you to measure the effect of your videos. The ability to measure video traffic beyond “views”-including audience dropoff, what sites and search terms are referring viewers, and audience geography-offers content publishers deeper insight into both the viewing habits of their audience and the extent of your video’s reach.

BUILD A BRAND CHANNEL – One way to get the attention of customers is invite them to become your video producers — especially if they jump off cliffs, ski down steep powder ridges or do somersaults on BMX bikes.

ADVERTISE WITH VIDEO – YouTube is the second-largest search engine after Google (which owns YouTube) and represents a huge audience of potential customers. It offers a dozen advertising options, including banner ads, promoted videos that appear on top and beside search results, and “preroll ads” that appear during other YouTube videos much like a conventional TV commercial. YouTube recently announced that it was displaying more than three billion ads per week.

OFFER INSTRUCTION – Pictures are really worth a thousand words and video multiplies that equation with 30 pictures a second. Online video makes it easy to follow the adage “Show, don’t tell.” Many businesses have turned to video for instruction manuals and how-to guides.

These tips come by way of Ed Celis from his video, Seven Things You Can Learn From Porn if you are a Digital Marketer on Vimeo. The video contains no adult content and is not intended to promote the porn industry, so it’s safe for viewing by anyone. It is primarily a video presentation with tips for successful online marketing and content distribution with samples taken from the adult industry. The video runs 21 minutes in length and definitely worth your time if you are an online or digital marketer.

In her most recent New Media Minute, Daisy Whitney talked with my good friend Mark Robertson, publisher and Founder of ReelSEO, and leading expert in online video search, about the secret sauce of video SEO. Mark says that content creators shouldn’t get bogged down in the inner workings or search, but that publishers should. Take note online video publishers, take video search seriously!!

Mark points out that a large portion of discovery comes from search, but search engines have a difficult time crawling and searching for video content. So he recommends several video best practices video best practices to make sure your video is discovered by search. Besides having great, unique content and relative content, and metdata to surround the video, and a well optimized website – Mark says that creating and submitting a Google Video Sitemap for your video content is the best way to show up in Universal Search, and your best chance to show up on page one of Google search.

Episode description:

Want to get more views for your videos? Have you optimized them for search? Knowing how to get your videos found via search can make a big difference in your views. But it’s something few video producers do. So come learn the tricks of Google video search from Mark Robertson with ReelSEO!

Endavo Media, a leading Internet TV and Social Media Platform, has created a fake Hollywood producer, Kelvin G., as a unique case study and marketing campaign to help online video content producers better understand Internet TV platforms, and how best to monetize their video. “He’s a little offbeat. He’s obsessed with zombies, and addicted to his webcam,” says the Endavo Media blog.

“While Internet TV platform technology has created a world of new money-making opportunities for producers and broadcasters,” said Endavo Media CMO Peter Contardo, “most could still use a little more knowledge to help navigate the space. Our fictitious movie producer, Kelvin G.,is helping educate, entertain and build relationships with our coreclient –the content producer. Kelvin is a fun, educational tool for demonstrating how Internet TV Platforms help grow businesses online with video.”

Launched last month, their online and social media marketing campaign targets a wide range of producers, broadcasters and brand marketers aiming to better leverage their video content online, Contardo added.

Kelvin G. interacts with Endavo clients, prospects and other “fellow producers” through his various Web videos, Twitter page,whitepapers and “personal” email, all supported by his own campy, mock movie that called Zombie Truckers 3, and a whacky microsite at ZombieTruckers3.com.

Endavo Media hopes that with Kelvin G.’s videos and his site, content producers will learn to embrace all the new opportunities to grow their businesses online, and have a little fun while they’re doing it. Check out Kelvin’s Hot Tips for “Making the Money” with Online Video and learn how smart producers and broadcasters monetize their content online:

About Endavo Media:
Endavo Media provides a hosted platform for Internet TV, enterprise video, social media and IPTV. This easy-to-use, cost-effective media management and distribution system offers high-quality live and on-demand delivery of video, audio and pictures. Content is delivered through brandable players, web sites and user interfaces, across the social web and to consumer broadband devices, including portable media players, mobile phones and set-top boxes. Music, entertainment and new media businesses, as well as social, cultural and faith-based organizations, get more control to connect and engage directly with their audiences, build their brands and generate revenue from their online video communities. Headquartered in Atlanta, Endavo Media was founded in 2004 and is now privately-held. Visit www.endavomedia.com for more information.